


Soulmates

by mychemicalrainbows



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Strangers to Lovers, basically fluff, like only fluff, like so much fluff, victuuri is simply being cute and in love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-19
Updated: 2017-07-03
Packaged: 2018-11-02 14:17:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10946256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mychemicalrainbows/pseuds/mychemicalrainbows
Summary: "what if the voice inside your head is your soulmate?"When you turn eighteen, you'll be able to hear the thoughts of your soulmate and the background noises of their life.The moment Viktor Nikiforov turns eighteen - he doesn't hear anything, only nearly four years later, he hears the voice in his head. Fate will make it inevitable for them to ignore each other - however nothing is easy when it comes to soulmates.





	1. Chapter 1

The moment Viktor turned eighteen should have been special - one to remember for all time. Instead it turned out to be horrible, disappointing and one of the worst days of his life. Eighteen was the age where you were supposed to hear the voice of your soulmate for the first time and after meeting them in person the voice would stop immediately, instead there would be a small mark at your wrist, showing everybody of how you were taken. The whole construct of soulmates and that your life was determined by this sort of system was ignored by Viktor. He just couldn't find himself to care a lot about if the person he'd fall in love with was his soulmate or not.

After he had turned eighteen - the day where everybody was rather celebrating christmas probably - Viktor didn't hear anything. He didn't hear a voice of his soulmate or the background noises of their life - no, he didn't hear anything. The first thing he felt was disappointment , the second feeling was resignation, he didn't know what he had expected, probably just something… well something different than this. There were several explanations for this: Maybe his soulmate wasn't eighteen yet, then it would make sense that he wasn't able to hear their voice. Or maybe it was just extremely quiet where his soulmate currently was. Like in a hospital perhaps? That was highly unlikely though. However there was this one possibility nobody dared to talk about and nobody wanted to talk about either: His soulmate could have died already. 

These things didn't happen often, so Viktor was sure that his soulmate was simply younger than him, maybe one year, then it would only take one year and he would be able to hear the sound of his soulmate's voice. However after a while he just forgot about it, he forgot about how he was supposed to wait anxiously for his soulmate's voice to appear his mind and then - of course - find his soulmate and marry them and all of that stuff, nobody actually wanted to do in the first place. Being forgetful about this whole soulmate concept was only to Viktor's advantage if he was being completely honest. 

Being on the ice since he could think, Viktor was already on top of all figure ice skaters with sixteen, after he had turned eighteen, his fans expected him to search for his soulmate and then - of course - get married. Many people did so with eighteen, but Viktor was probably not supposed to be one of them. After he didn't really cared about his small soulmate problem anymore, he was back on the ice - even better than before. It went on and on like this, his whole life was the ice, people admired him, maybe even wanted to be him. There were theories out there that Viktor didn't have a soulmate or didn't want to search for them for the sake of success. 

Not that Viktor was particularly interested in what people thought about him - as long as they didn't expected him to listen to their thoughts - but that changed once he turned twenty. Twenty was like the age all people got married - for some reason. Maybe they felt like it was time for that then, or they just didn't want to wait any longer, who knows, what people think of marriage these days. Then he was always asked about his soulmates in interviews and generally everywhere. Whereas his coach - Yakov - was strictly for not answering these questions and blocking out everything about, Viktor just told them that he didn't know where his soulmate was and would wait for fait to bring them together. Even though Yakov didn't like this thing at all, after that the questions stopped. 

Viktor, considered being generally carefree, was happy with his life. With twenty-one he was one of the best ice skaters in the world, having won several World Championships and also Grand Prix Finals, furthermore he held the world record. He liked his life and when he didn't think about the strange silent in his head that started to become normal for him, it was actually really enjoyable. He had travelled the world, skating in various locations and visited many cities. But even Viktor couldn't deny the fact how something was missing in his life, maybe it was his soulmate, however he didn't want to think about the missing voice in his head or general the horrible quiet that was especially there at night, when all the other noises were falling silent. 

Then eventually in October - he would be twenty-four on the 25th December - Viktor found his peace, he finally stopped asking himself why he never heard the voice of his soulmate, or if he would ever hear it in the first place. After that the best weeks of his life followed he was filled with some sort buzzing excitement and happiness. Of course people noticed how his mood had noticeable changed, but they thought it was because he had found his soulmate and not exactly the other thing around. 

However on the night to the 29th of November, he was suddenly waken up by strange and incredibly loud voices in his head. Basically everybody was screaming and shouting - and simply being incredible loud. Viktor sat up in his bed and was startled, confused. It was weird, first he thought he might be simply dreaming, but after pinching his hand, he realised that he was completely conscious. 

Maybe a migraine? But then he had never had a problem with headaches or migraines so that made like no sense at all. He looked at the clock, realising it was only eleven thirty pm. So he was probably not asleep for longer than half an hour. 

He concentrated on the shouting out of curiosity and then realised - that he didn't understand anything what these people were saying. They weren't talking in Russian for sure, so what was the language they were talking in then? He thought about the languages he knew - it wasn't English either. Now the question was, what language they were talking in then? Listening for some iconic phrases, Viktor tried figuring in what language they were shouting in. 

It needed some time and a lot of concentration, considering he was still half asleep and not really completely awake. With google opened on his internet browser he typed in words he thought he understand but there was nothing he could figure out right now. However getting back to sleep was inconceivable, considering all the screaming and shouting that was still going on in his head. After laying awake in bed for another hour, the voices had gone from shouting to talking to whispering to being completely silent. Instead a comforting different voice was more dominant now, Viktor had heard it before but now it was louder, however it sounded like thinking - only that Viktor couldn't understand anything, still. 

Still after listening to the soft voice, he occasionally fell asleep, even though in his dreams this voice was still there, but less present and more like some sort of comforting ambient noise. After Viktor had got used to this sort of new thing in his head, it was actually nice and with that he was awoken at four am again, but some new screaming… And he thought it was simply annoying, considering he had still not gotten enough sleep. 

Then he actually understood a word, even though Viktor only knew like a few words in Japanese - for some reason. And then everything suddenly made sense, his soulmate had turned eighteen finally and they were living in Japan? 

For a second Viktor was filled with a new sort of happiness, a happiness that was deeper and felt real and truthful - he felt some new love for life. 

—

For Yuuri basically everybody had always talked to him about the importance of soulmates and how his eighteenth birthday was supposed to be special. His older sister Mari had always told him about the first time she heard her soulmate's voice in her head. When she was talking about it that way she was always full of excitement and happiness. It was the same way his mother talked about finding her soulmate in Yuuri's father. They had found each other with eighteen and got married at twenty, which was not something unusual, many people got married around twenty. 

These things made him - obviously - excited about his eighteenth birthday, even though that meant coming home to Japan for a few days and training there for a few days, after that he would move to Detroit and continue his training there. Part of Yuuri was thankful for it, being happy to spend some time with his family again. Being born in the early morning Yuuri was awake at half past five am, waiting for his birth time to arrive. 

And then the time was finally there, his hands were sweating and he felt anxious about how his whole life would probably change after this - after all he had a soulmate after that, a soulmate he had to care and was supposed to marry a few years later. A few minutes later there was still nothing, then the door to his room was opened with screaming and shouting, his parents and also elder sister coming in singing him a happy birthday song. With that Yuuri was completely unable to even listen to his own thoughts, not to think of listening to what his soulmate was thinking or what the background noises were there. 

"Are you hearing anything, Yuuri?" his mum - Hiroko - asked him, sounding more excited than he was probably right now. With that his family finally stopped being so loud, so he could actually concentrate on the voice that was supposed to be in his head - and yes, there actually was a voice. It was rather sounded sleepy and partly annoyed or confused - but he didn't understand what they were trying to say. 

"Yes," he replied after about a minute, he simply listened to these new voice in his head. It was comforting and also really nice, for some reason it helped him to keep down his anxiety to a minimum. "But… they are not talking in Japanese… I can't understand anything… So it's probably not English either… And it doesn't sound like Thai… It sounds kind of hard…"

"Listen for some phrases?" Hiroko suggested, while taking Yuuri's hand in hers. It was a solacing touch, helping him to concentrate on the voice in his head. After a while she added. "I'm sure, we'll figure out where they are soon though. But first it's a good feeling to know that you actually have a soulmate."

Yuuri nodded, yawning. Considering he had only slept for a few hours tonight because of his excitement. "I think, I'll try and sleep a little now, I haven't gotten that much sleep tonight actually…" he said carefully, fearing the reaction of his family.

"Of course, good night, Yuuri," Mari told him with a smile, their mum and dad added a 'sleep well' and 'nice dreams'. They left his room quietly, closing the door carefully as well. 

He was glad to be alone for a while - even though he would never be alone, since he had his brown poodle - Vicchan - with him. Vicchan was currently laying next to his bed, sleeping peacefully. For a second Yuri petted his soft brown fur for comfort. Somewhere out there was his soulmate. The person he was supposed to spend his life with after all. Part of him wished that he didn't have a soulmate, since that meant so much responsibility not only for him, but also his other half. 

There was only one wish that made him scared of himself. When he first heard about the whole soulmate thing completely, he wished for his idol to be his soulmate - which made him blush immediately, even though nobody really cared about his thoughts. It wasn't like they could read what he was thinking, but still… it was embarrassing to think of his idol - Viktor Nikiforov - like that. Especially since Yuuri had watched like all interviews the silver haired young man was in and he had told all of them that he would wait for fate to bring him and his soulmate together. 

So sadly he probably wouldn't stand a chance, but right now he didn't really have time for searching his soulmate anyway. With the training in Detroit coming up and also the Grand Prix Final he should probably focus on this first and then after that figure out where his soulmate even was in the first place.

With a new warmth in his heart and generally a happy and comforting feeling Yuuri managed to fall back asleep, catching up with the missing sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just thank you so much for all the feedback ?? you're all so nice to me, so simply thank you so much for taking your time to comment these lovely things <3

Sharing a room in Detroit with Phichit - a thai ice skater - was nice. Yuuri became quick friends with him, as they immediately were on the same wave length. They both didn't really knew anything there, so it was nice to have a friend. Especially Yuuri was really thankful, since Phichit was always optimistic and cheerful, so he was friends with like… everybody. In contrast to himself who rather stayed alone and not spoke with other ice skaters. Their coach Celestino Cialdini was competent and coaching both of them really good. 

Yuuri felt increasingly more and more confident about his skating and also occasionally himself as a person. There was still the persistent almost at the point where it got annoying voice of his soulmate. With the help of his new found friend Phichit they were at least able to figure out the language - Russian. So he kind of pressured Yuuri into studying Russian, which was harder than it first seemed due to it being a really difficult language. However sometimes he thought about his soulmate was forced to learn Japanese, which was probably as hard. There was nothing however that Yuuri could do right now for finding his soulmate. The only possible opportunity was for him to wait until fate made it inevitable for them to meet, still he was positive that he'd meet his soulmate soon. 

It was a silent hope that he and his soulmate would immediately hit off with each other and there wouldn't be any awkward silences. He only realised that he was beginning to stare at the wall, without showing any sign of life, when Phichit's common cheerful face appeared in his field of vision. "You should really stop worrying, you are thinking too much about all of this. Just concentrate on the ice skating for now. You said it yourself, fate will make you meet your soulmate sooner or later."

"Yeah, I know," Yuuri replied, being happy for the reassuring voice of his friend, calming him down a little bit. Then he added a few things that usually kept him up at night, when listening to the calming voice of his soulmate didn't help at all. "I'm just… What if they don't like me or… what if they actually don't want a soulmate and I'm interfering their life plans completely…" Using gender-neutral pronouns for your soulmates while talking about them, before you actually figured their gender out was like an unspoken law. It prevented people from having to out themselves because of their soulmate, even if almost everybody was really accepting these ways. Furthermore it wasn't like you had a choice about who your soulmate was. 

There was a short break between them until Phichit responded. "Are you actually thinking that? Because soulmates will always be special to you, I am already excited for the time, I'll be able to listen to the voice of them in my head. Although I'm pretty sure that I am more excited about you meeting your soulmate than you are about meeting them." The silence between them was filled up with laughter that made the whole situation more chill, especially since the statement of Phichit was so true. 

"It's actually more annoying than nice, especially since it can get so horrible loud, you know?" Yuuri explained with a chuckle. "Like sometimes it's just the only thing you can hear and when people try to talk to you, then you simply can't listen to what their saying because you - for some weird reason - rather listen to the thoughts of your soulmate. Even though I still don't understand a lot of what they are saying. Russian is just such a complete different language."

"You learned the basics of Thai in like no time, I can't imagine how you would have any problems with learning Russian, considering you have it quite literally stuck in your head 24/7," Phichit answered with a laugh. "Also simply because of you I have learnt so much Russian already, it's actually really nothing that was on my list of priorities… Finding the soulmate of my friend Yuuri and being high-key supportive of their new relationship is on this list."

"Wow, thanks, so you basically want to hook me up?" Yuuri asked and his cheeks lit up with a slight red blush. His wish was still present, recently Viktor had announced to be still searching for his soulmate, even though people had started pressuring him about new information about where his soulmate lived and everything, but the twenty-three year old hasn't said anything apart from that 'they weren't in Russia'. Which should be a good thing probably? Hopefully? Yuuri actually doesn't know if he was supposed to be happy about this… 

"Yeah, you could sum it up like that," Phichit replied with a grin and then stood up from his bed. They were both already in their training clothes, only just chatting along the last few minutes before actually going to training. "We really have to get to the warm up for skating now, you know. It's important that we'll finally get there, otherwise we will run late and we don't want that for sure." 

Yuuri nodded getting up, too. They were walking downstairs to the icy surface. Occasionally the voice - or more the thoughts and background noises - of his soulmate were distracting Yuuri to the point were he wasn't actually able to concentrate on the ice skating. Of course their coach knew about these sort of problems and most of the time it didn't really affect his skills and success when it came to step sequences - and he wasn't able to do jumps before that, so he obviously wasn't able to do them now. 

Detroit was so far being amazing. Of course he missed his family a lot, so went for his friends, but they had regular Skype calls, so the home sickness was kept to a minimum - gladly. Especially with his childhood friend Yuuko, who was two years older than him and had already found her soulmate. She had the luck that her soulmate was their childhood friend Takeshi. They were an amazing couple and even managed the Ice Castle in his hometown Hasestu together. Lately Yuuko had also been talking a lot about their mutual wish to have children, but they didn't really wanted to rush things.

Yuuri was however beginning to wonder about wether his soulmate was dumb or simply really forgetful. Most of their voice was in a questioning way, like they asked themselves a lot of questions, however after looking up some Russian words, he had realised that they were asking if they forgot about something important (?). The problem was that Yuuri didn't actually understood a lot and was furthermore still completely over-challenged with the Russian Alphabet. Phichit however was better at this - probably because his life didn't depend on learning Russian like Yuuri's did. It was a lot of stress and sometimes he just wished that his soulmate could be living in Japan, then all of this wouldn't be necessary. In addition to this being easier Yuuri had tried to think in English and not in Japanese like he usually did… Which didn't succeed because the thoughts that you soulmate would be able to hear were spontaneous and not controllable - sadly.

"I think, it's pretty funny that your soulmate is probably older than you and still forgets like half of their life," Phichit said, as they were walking towards the changing rooms. The changing rooms weren't really necessary, considering that most ice skaters were arriving in their training clothes and only had to change their shoes. "And also I'm already really excited for you two to meet. I ship you and your soulmate a lot."

Yuuri blushed a little bit, in an attempt to hide his blush, he sat down on the next best bench, getting out of his shoes and started focussing on tying ice skates instead. "We haven't even met each other yet, I don't want to rush into things… All this talking about having to get married with twenty is making me extremely anxious. I don't want to think about all of this stuff right now, just let me concentrate on my ice skating." His voice was sounding a lot more irritatedly and harshly than Yuuri had intended, but the non-stopping talking about his soulmate and meeting was getting on his nerves slowly. Not in a way where he was annoyed by that, but more that he was actually scared of this life-changing things. After finishing his last sentence, he quickly added. "Sorry… I didn't mean to be so harsh, I know you don't mean it to freak me out… You only want to help."

"Oh no, I'm the one who's sorry, I shouldn't pressure you like that, we'll take it a lot slower from now on," Phichit immediately apologised, probably realising that he had stroked a nerve with his constant excitement. "Well then I'd say we get to the warm up, I want you to perform at the Sochi Grand Prix Final. You've made it this far and now go and show the world how much you love ice skating."

Even though these words put a lot pressure on Yuuri's shoulders, he knew that his friend only wanted the best for him. So he simply nodded and smiled, at least someone was there, who believed in him and would cheer on him in the competition.

 

—

 

After a while Viktor had come to the conclusion that his soulmate needed someone to calm them down. Even though he had previously already tried to reassure them that everything was fine, the different languages made it a lot more difficult for their communication. The worst thing about learning Japanese was probably the writing system. It was complicated and also the opportunities to study Japanese properly in Russia were limited to a minimum. So Viktor had to settle for learning Japanese in English, since he wanted to have trustworthy information about the language… his soulmate would still probably laugh at him because of his horrible Japanese. At least there wouldn't be an awkward silence between them then. 

His coach - Yakov - wasn't that impressed about these plans, thinking they would distract him from actually competing in the Sochi Grand Prix Final and therefore hopefully winning his fifth consecutive Grand Prix Final. He should probably consider himself as lucky that he didn't find his soulmate until now - at least that's what Yakov had told him. From the moment you've found your soulmate people were talking about experiences some sort of urge to spend as much time with them as they could. Then settling down in a nice city and maybe get married after things worked out, and after that starting a family. They have described it as some sort of instinct - an instinct for caring for this other person and being there for them. 

Right now Viktor hadn't felt any urge or instinct regarding his soulmate - apart from the compulsion to learn Japanese to understand what they were saying… or more like thinking. And more than anything in the world he wished for them to become more confident and say all these things they'd rather kept in their head instead. 

However feelings were never part of this deal, but from time to time they just came with the thoughts - or maybe it was the way the voice spoke in his head that made it so impossible for him to ignore the way his soulmate must be feeling while thinking these things. Viktor wanted that his soulmate would feel better soon and not have so many self-doubts. 

"Vitya!" he heard the voice of Yakov, his coach. As usual it was harsh and strict, but still with some sort of kindness. "You need to concentrate more on improving your stamina, without that you'll never be able to beat your own personal best."

Viktor simply laughed, as he made his way to the exit of the icy surface, he was only seconds practising his programs, it was more like a daily routine he did to not be out of practise before the Grand Prix Final. It would be his fifth consecutive Grand Prix Final victory, which was really scary, when he thought about it. "Coach Yakov, you know I have choreographed the program exactly for the things I'm able to do."

"If you simply spent your time learning Japanese on working on your stamina, you'd be able to set a new world record," Yakov muttered under his breath, which Viktor still heard. But he brushed it off casually, his coach was without question competent and really good, but at the same lacked some sort of spontaneity when it came to competitions. 

He needed to surprise the people watching him ice skate, there was nothing as important as this point. Without that people wouldn't think of his program as compelling, they had to not be able to look away anymore. It was the highest priority when he was picking the music for his programs and choreographing them. 

After taking a few sips of water Viktor was back on the ice, testing the limits of what he could do on top of his choreography, maybe changing a step along the way or doing different expressions. It was difficult to figure out for himself where he wanted to take his free program, but he had tried adding some new emotions that came with having soulmate.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just clear something ! Viktor is right now twenty-three and Yuuri is eighteen, I made them both younger since otherwise it won't fit the story pretty well !!

The Grand Prix Final came sooner than Yuuri had expected, but he was reassured by both his coach and Phichit more than once that he would be fine and shouldn't worry so much. However that wasn't really something that helped his anxiety a lot. The worst thing that had happened only last week was the death of his brown poodle Vicchan. After Yuuri had heard of this - only by continually asking his mum why she wouldn't let him see Vicchan during skyping - he was about to fly back to Japan and attend the funeral. 

He even wanted to book a flight for the night from Detroit to Japan. Then he realised that his flight to Sochi, in Russia, would be in the early mornings the next day. After speaking about this issue with his coach, it was clear that attending the funeral of his dog would equal not attending the Grand Prix Final. For him the decisions would have been easy, his dog was most certainly more important than every competition in the world, that changed the second his mum was telling him that the noise inside his head would get louder the closer he'd get to his soulmate. Knowing his soulmate lived somewhere in Russia, Hiroko basically persuaded him to go the Grand Prix Final. 

'Vicchan wouldn't have wanted you to miss the opportunity of getting to know your soulmate and having the chance to skate with one of the best ice skaters in the world,' his mum had told him softly, but quickly added. 'We'll accept your decision of course, whatever you decide we will support you.'

After the conversation with his family, Yuuri decided for going to the Grand Prix Final, even though he felt guilty for betraying his poodle and he swore himself to come home as soon as possible - so after the Grand Prix Final in Sochi, he would immediately book a flight to Japan. He didn't like the way his hands were tied on this issue currently. 

The flight to Sochi didn't take that long than Yuuri had expected it to be - originally planed was to sleep the whole flight and then immediately live in the 'right' time zone. The time difference was a total of seven hours - which was a lot, considering he had only one week to get used to it. That's why he wanted to sleep the flight and then be able to get his body to no complain that much about the time difference. This idea worked for the first half of the flight - after that the noises inside his head became unable to ignore. Sometimes Yuuri could swear that his soulmate simply wanted to annoy him to death. 

In the background there was often music playing - just like right now again - which was strangely familiar to Yuuri, but this time it got louder and louder the closer they came to Sochi. Previously the thoughts were quiet, only identifiable when he concentrated on them, even at night it was most of the time easy to sleep - probably because of the noise being familiar with Yuuri by now. Since sleep was nothing to think of right now, Yuuri instead started studying a little bit Russian again. He was proud to be able to read Russian words without a problem now - which helped him little to nothing considering his soulmate thought and didn't write anything - sadly. 

Sometimes when Yuuri was studying Russian and tried pronouncing words in his thoughts, he swore he could hear his soulmate chuckle a little bit. It didn't feel like his soulmate was making fun of him, it was more an endearing sound. Right now the same things happened again. Yuuri wondered, if once they were in the same country, they could teach each other the language - that would be pretty comfortable. 

Sadly his soulmate was definitely better at Japanese than Yuuri was at Russian. Occasionally there were Japanese thoughts in his head, which were surprisingly well pronounced, even though they were always sounding like a question. A few seconds later the background music stopped and there was the chuckle of his soulmate again. It was soft, almost fond, like they were happy that Yuuri at least tried learning their language. 

They even thought something along the lines 'wow, you've improved', which was probably the longest sentences Yuuri had ever understood. Feeling proud he continued revising a few phrases that would also be helpful in Russia. Occasionally he fell asleep to the endearing chuckles of his soulmates. 

He was sure that whoever his soulmate was, they would make him feel comfortable in his own skin no matter what. They already did exactly that everyday, so nothing would hopefully change once they had meet in person for the first time.

 

—

 

Viktor was fascinated by the way his soulmate was really good at learning Russian. Considering they pronounced the words almost always correctly in their mind. He however couldn't help and be more and more excited about maybe actually being able to communicate with his soulmate in a normal way. 

He had arrived in Sochi a few days before most ice skaters who would take part in the competition. The city was close to his hometown, St. Petersburg, so it wasn't a long drive there. (Especially his poodle Makkachin was probably happy by that.) After a while Viktor had gotten used to the noises in his head and if he didn't actively concentrated on them, he wouldn't even be able to recognise them during his daily life.

During the last days before the Grand Prix Final Viktor practised usually the whole day and then went to bed in the evening. It was exhausting but in the end that's what you did for winning another championship. Yakov had pushed Viktor into running in the morning before practice, in order to improve his stamina - it didn't help a lot, but there was a slight improvement. 

One week before the final in Sochi took place, Viktor was interrupted during his practise, by the voice of his soulmate constantly growing louder and louder. At first, he didn't even realise it, since it happened so slowly and also unconsciously. He knew that it would only take him few days to get used to this, but he was getting a little bit annoyed by this. (Not the fact that he heard the voice of his soulmate more clearer now, it was the fact that this endangered his win this time.) 

Also the rumours about him (and his soulmate) had lived up again, this time they were about him being gay - gasp - and that this was the reason why nobody knew his soulmate yet. People were trying to come up with theories over theories, attempting to find evidence for their theory. They said it was 'obvious' that Viktor was gay, his thoughts simply were 'how are sexualities obvious to people?'. However until now nobody had asked him about it directly - probably out of respect for his privacy - a thing Viktor was kind of thankful for. 

Still Viktor decided to rather take a break, until the noises in his head would just stay in a constant volume, otherwise he couldn't even think about continuing his trainings. "Vitya, is it your soulmate again? Is there a possibility that they are coming to Russia for some reason?" his coach asked immediately, already knowing that there could be only one reason for Viktor to take a break from training this close to the Grand Prix Final. 

"Maybe, I don't know," Viktor replied with a smile, tilting his head to the side a little. "However it would be the only logical explanation to this probably." He sat down on a bench next to the icy surface, putting on his white-red jacket. He didn't want to get a cold because of the fact he didn't wear enough clothing while taking a break. 

"You know there's a real chance that you will actually lose this final if you don't start focussing on your skating, instead of spending all the time thinking about your soulmate," Yakov lectured Viktor, while glaring at him. "But you're still here and haven't run off to search for your soulmate at least."

Viktor just laughed, looking up from his phone screen for a second. "You think too much about this whole soulmate thing, right now I just need some time to get used to the fact that the noises in my head are louder than before now. Maybe I'll meet them soon and then this noise will be gone." 

After meeting your soulmate for the first time - there were a lot of arguments about what counted as 'meeting', but you had to touch your soulmate and look them in the eyes without glass between you, other's said you had to actually talk to them, otherwise it wouldn't work out… however after that there would be a small little symbol on your wrist that matches the symbol of your soulmate. It is usually in a deep black, but occasionally can be white or in any colour, too. It really depended on the individual case. 

This was probably some sort of showing everybody else that you were taken and stuff. (Maybe that was why soulmates got married soon after meeting, they were already tied to each other for life by the symbols on their wrist, why not get married then?) 

Scrolling through his instagram feed Viktor was once amazed at how people always took selfies and posted them there. Especially since the person who uploaded the picture usually looked the best, while everybody was simply looking really ugly. For a short amount of time he had managed to blind out this noise that was only getting louder and louder and louder now - slowly he mainly felt completely left while listening to his soulmate's voice. He couldn't understand a lot of Japanese, so he like didn't understand anything. 

'How am I supposed to win a Grand Prix Final, when I can't even focus on ice skating right now?' Viktor asked himself, not really wanting to admit he - considered one of the best ice skaters in the world, kind of a living legend and the one who was holding the world record - was actually scared for losing this Grand Prix Final. 

"If the noise keeps being that loud, then you simply have to focus on the music while ice skating. Stop thinking about this voice inside your head and instead simply do what you can do best," Yakov said and it was probably one of the nicest he had ever said to Viktor in his life. 

For some reason he felt some new sort of hope in his heart, he didn't feel so scared and anxious anymore, with this new feeling he nodded, standing up and getting back on the ice again. 

 

—

 

Sochi was a really nice city as long as Yuuri had realised until, even though the only thing he had seen from it until now was the way from the airport to the hotel to the ice rink, where all of the other's who had qualified themselves for the Grand Prix Festival would be practising. Only the thought of his idol - Viktor Nikiforov - being there, too, was making Yuuri completely buzzing with excitement. Only just watching him in practise - live! - would probably make his life like ten times better. 

"Don't be so anxious about all of this," his coach Celestino said to him, smiling at him encouragingly. "You've come this far and I am sure that you'll be able to achieve what you want to, if you just believe in yourself." There was a small break before he added. "And on top of this maybe you can find your soulmate, since they will be somewhere near Sochi right now."

It was nice hearing such calming words and Yuuri could already relax a little bit. Simply being in the same competition as his idol was already like one of his life goals, so Yuuri decided for himself that it would be enough for him if he got to enjoy all of this. With another reassuring smile of his coach, Yuuri went towards the next best bench, sitting down there and simply taking a small break to see all of the things that were happening around him. (Also there was Viktor on the ice, actually practising! Simply trying out a few jumps.)

Yuuri, being known to not be the best one when it came to Jumps, admired the way Viktor was able to land all of his jumps so accurately. The black haired boy was more known for his Step Sequences or Spins. Meanwhile the noises in his head were growing louder and louder, which made it unable for him to actually train - or more like test the icy surface.

Of course, no ice skaters actually skated their program in front of the others before the actually show. It was simply to not let them know anything of their program, but at these times there was a so called 'open training'. (Maybe they were actually supposed to talk to each other? Not something Yuuri would ever think of, considering he was extremely awkward, when it came to talking to other's.)

"Yuuri! Come on, I know you're probably jet-lagged, but you need to skate at least a little bit today," Celestino half-shouted towards him, causing Yuuri to look up and actually starting to move. He first got out his ice skates and started taking off his shoes, which he placed next to his backpack, he had carried around the whole day already. 

Even though the noises in his head were at a point, where they were actually really annoying Yuuri he was happy, when he could finally get on the ice. It was what he loved after all and after he managed to get this far, he really wanted to simply enjoy this. When would he get the chance again to see Viktor skate so close to him? Probably never again in his life, considering the silver haired young man was close to turning twenty-four, meaning he'd get married to his soulmate soon. 

For a moment it could Yuuri that he was in a similar situation if he wasn't completely lucky and his soulmate was an ice skater - or a coach or someone with a pretty 'free' job schedule, too, there was no possibility he'd be able to continue ice skating - if he even had a wish for that? Maybe after meeting his soulmate he wanted to get married to them? There were too many possibilities for the future, so he tried not to think about too much and instead went on the ice. 

"Just try a step sequence and like skate a little bit, we'll start the last bit of training tomorrow," Celestino told Yuuri with a smile, while Yuuri glanced at Viktor for one last time and then turned around, started to skate.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love how Viktor is talking to Makkachin and also I based it on me talking to my cats... And sorry that this chapter is so ? I don't know I just don't like it so much as the ones before, but it is kind of a filler? so yeah :)

Viktor was beyond excited for the Grand Prix Final. The last week before it he had spent training - like everybody of his opponents was, too - despite the noises in his head being unable to ignore, even though occasionally there were strangely similar to what he was hearing. And still his soulmate seemed to scared, even doubting themselves a lot - especially at night, which made Viktor believe that they in the same time zone right now. He was happy about that fact, it made him feel closer to his soulmate than ever before, even though he felt kind of helpless, since he wanted to give them some sort confidence - it broke his heart that he couldn't do anything about it. 

That resulted into Viktor not thinking about anything that would stress his soulmate even more, instead he tried to reassure them, with thinking about happy things and being generally cheerful. Sometimes it helped and he heard them chuckle a little - which was by the way one of the best sounds he had ever heard in his whole life. Which made him wonder about wether everything about his soulmate was going to be so beautiful, so angelic and simply perfect. Viktor spent the mornings before competitions always in his bed, cuddling with Makkachin, who never left his side, even when it came to the Grand Prix Final. She was behaving really well, even when it came to the ice rink, where a few hundred people were usually standing around and being extremely loud.

Makkachin was still calm and sometimes even slept during Viktor was competing to other skaters. (She probably didn't appreciate the fact that he was one of the best figure skaters around the world, instead found the music he was skating to rather slumbrous. However Viktor didn't complain about, as long she was calm, doing well and could relax instead of being completely stressed during competitions.) Even though he had to admit that Makkachin was probably better at dealing with human's emotions than he was. "I don't get this whole thing about soulmates, Makkachin. Maybe we won't be just the two of us after a while."

He didn't really expected an answer from her, but she was looking at him with her dark eyes, like she actually listened to him. "I'm kind of scared, you know," he continued. "This may be the last year of me ice skating, before I'll get married to them. It's weird that I'm considered as old for getting married, even if I'm only twenty-three. I don't know if I'm even ready for getting married, I simply hope I'll be happy with them, you know?" There was an understanding look in Makkachin's eyes, her head dropping on Viktor's head. "You need to tell me what you think of them, your opinion on them is the most important one. As long as you like them, I know they are a good person." 

Sometimes Viktor felt kind of strange for talking to his dog, like he had full conversations with her. He shared more secrets with her than he did with every person he knew. Maybe his soulmate asked themselves what the fuck he was doing there, talking with his dog, but it didn't bother Viktor a lot. His soulmate had heard so many of his thoughts - if they understood them or not - that it didn't matter if they realised he was talking to his dog. (And the universe hopefully wouldn't match him with someone, who was allergic to dogs, since that would actually be the absolute worst. Like really the absolute worst thing, it would be a complete disaster.) 

"I am kind of nervous for today, you know it's the Grand Prix Final after all and maybe my soulmate is watching? The noise inside my head has become a lot louder recently, so I think they are somewhere in Russia at least, maybe even in the same city," Viktor thought out loud, while petting Makkachin's head lovingly. "The thing is I'm kind of scared, it's pretty hard to admit it, but I'm actually over-thinking all of this. I just thought of soulmates like some weird concept that wouldn't apply to me, but it does strangely and that's what scares me. After almost four year I finally found them and all I can think about is what if they don't like me."

Like she wanted to show him some kind of support, she placed her head on his shoulder and cuddled up a little closer to him. It gave Viktor comfort, knowing that whatever would happen, she would still be there. With that he tried not to think of all the things that were keeping him distracted from actually competing to the other ice skaters. For winning his fourth consecutive Grand Prix Final he needed to be in his top form - also, even if Viktor didn't really wanted to admit it, he really wanted to impress his soulmate, when they were there. 

 

—

 

"This is not going to end well, I am so nervous, I think I just won't compete, I will not be able to survive this," Yuuri told his mother on the phone. He was currently sitting on a bench, with the perfect view on the ice rink, where more and more of his competitors got on the ice and did their warm ups. Meanwhile he was being there almost freaking out and not knowing what he was supposed to do now. Looking around the hall, thinking about what would happen next, he added. "Maybe I am not made to be here… And I also feel really alone right now."

"Yuuri, you don't need to stress about that so much," Hiroko told him and he could feel her trying to calm him down, however it didn't really help his anxiety in any way. "Whatever you do, you will do your best. This is your first Grand Prix Final, so please just enjoy it -" She interrupted herself for a second, then continued to talk. "Wait Yuuko is currently here, so we can watch the whole final live and cheer on you, I'll hand the phone over to her. I'm sure, she wants to wish good luck, too, even if we all know that you probably won't need it."

"Ok," he managed to say and simply waited anxiously. There were some background noises, which were probably due to the phone being handed over to another person. He could feel his heartbeat quickening and his breathing get flatter. He simply was scared to fail and with that don't bring justice to all of the effort his parents put into him getting this far. And then he finally could hear Yuuko's voice saying something probably to his mum, until she properly spoke in the speaker of the phone. "Hey, Yuuri."

"Hey, Yuuko, how are you doing?" Yuuri asked our of habit and he could already hear his childhood friend sigh by his words. She always told him how he worried to much about others and didn't care for his good enough. However this time she didn't say anything about it, she just chuckled quietly.

"I'm fine and so excited for you!" she screamed into the speaker, resulting into Yuuri holding his phone away from his ear. "Wait, Takeshi is currently coming by - hey, love, why don't you come by and wish Yuuri luck for the upcoming competition, since it will start soon and after the phone call he probably needs to warm up and stuff." There were some steps in the background and then Takeshi's voice was there. "You will rock this, Yuuri, and really stop worrying so much about everything… also stop overthinking that won't help your anxiety like at all."

"Thanks for that advice," Yuuko replied to her husband's words with a laugh, then brought her attention back to Yuuri. "We are all here to cheer on you, so please instead of worrying about everything, just get on the ice and do what you can do best. Show people how much you love ice skating and that this is your dream. You have the big chance to live your dream, so simply do that instead of worrying over and over if you're good enough. Because if you weren't good enough, then you won't be where you are now in the first place. You deserve to be in the Grand Prix Final as much as everybody else who's in there with you."

"Thank you," Yuuri replied, actually not being able to put his feelings into words. Yuuko would always be there for him and especially now she had calmed him down gave him the courage he needed for doing his best at this competition. Taking a deep breath or two he felt himself becoming calm, this was his dream after all, this was what he wanted to do since the first day he started to figure skate competitive and now he was here. He would skate on the same ice as his idol - there should be nothing to worry about at all. Maybe he wasn't as good as everybody else, but still… he was there and that alone was impressive. 

"Oh yeah and please please get me an autograph of Viktor if you get the chance!! Please and get a selfie with him! Like otherwise I'll disinherit you, you will no longer be my friend, if you don't go for it," Yuuko said and even though she tried to be serious, her voice was warm and filled with humour. "I need you to do this for me… and for yourself of course. Not everybody gets the chance to just casually meet their idol and maybe even talk to them at a banquet later on… without them thinking it's weird."

"You two are both such Viktor fangirls, it's actually embarrassing!" Yuuri could hear Takeshi screaming from the - probably - the other side of the room, then a laugh from Hiroko. However Takeshi's voice couldn't in any way be interpreted as mean, it was teasing but still filled with some sort of softness. "I swear Yuuko would have preferred marrying Viktor over marrying me."

"Good that you are my soulmate and thus don't have to worry about all of these things," Yuuko replied with a chuckle, then brought her attention back to the phone call. "However, Yuuri, to sum up all I said, do your best and talk to Viktor, if you get the chance. And remember if you do your best that's simply all we can expect from you, don't worry so much about everything, Yuuri."

They said their good byes after it and Yuuri finally realised that he had calmed down. In the end everything would somehow work out well. With that he put his phone away and got up, rushing towards the ice rink and meanwhile looking out for his coach, which was nowhere to be seen. The warm up would be closed soon, so Yuuri had to somehow do that now, otherwise he wouldn't have a chance in the competitions - like at all, there wouldn't even be a slight chance for him. Finally he spotted Celestino, who was supposing already looking out for him, too. 

"Good to finally see you," he told Yuuri with a smile. "I hope, you feel better now after talking to your family." Celestino did his best to help him with his anxiety, even letting and encouraging him - like right now - call his family during competitions in order to calm him down. "Now get on the ice, you can do your warm up right away and then we'll still be able to finish on time, so don't worry about it, Yuuri."

Yuuri sent his coach a happy and relived smile, taking a step on the ice. It felt weird to be so close to the actual competitions now, in only about thirty minutes it would start and that would be the top of his career. There was nothing else Yuuri ever wanted to achieve in his life more. With a glance to his sides, he could see almost all of the other skaters already leave the ice, going back to their coaches and sharing a few thoughts with them probably, whereas Yuuri had only started right now - great now all of them would think he was lazy and procrastinated all of his duties. 

Thus he was more than glad when he saw that there was another figure on the ice left, too. Even though the comfort he felt was soon changed into nervousness as he recognised it was actually Viktor, who was the only one on the ice - apart from him. Now Yuuri would definitely not be able to concentrate on his warm up - as soon as he thought that he dripped and then almost immediately the voice of his soulmate got louder and louder. Yuuri however tried not to think about this point at all and instead he focused on finishing his warm up. 

 

—

 

Viktor was - as always - almost the only one left on the ice, only after he felt like he really did everything he needed to do. Yakov already stood there, waiting for him, his arms crossed in front of his chest like he wasn't actually happy with the performance Viktor did back on the ice. "You're not in your best form today, I don't know wether this is enough for the gold medal, maybe you'll only be able to win silver this time, Vitya. I wouldn't be so sure of your win, if I were you."

However the silver haired man just smiled at the words of his coach. "I don't think there is anyone here, who could beat me… especially that nobody is in their best form either." Before their was place for another conversation about the chance of him winning gold or not, Viktor left the ice completely and got to the changing rooms, since he was still wearing his red-white jacket over the costume, he'd be wearing for the short program. He could hear Yakov sigh, but his coach didn't say anything to him about it. 

Normally Viktor didn't bother about other people at competitions, however since the voice of his soulmate was really loud at the moment - and also extremely anxious, he checked out all of the viewers and simply everybody who was standing around. Something told him that his soulmate was here somewhere - which didn't help him at all considering he had no idea how they looked like, he just knew how they thought - and that they were a native speaker in Japanese. That should probably help him a lot, but it didn't for some reason. 

The whole competitions went pretty well for Viktor, he was more than glad that everything went the way he wanted it to. His short program went more than good and the free skate as well, with that - especially compared to the other skaters, no offence - it was almost obvious that Viktor would take the first place. The only thing that overshadowed the joy was the obvious sadness of his soulmate. They were kind of depressed - not that it was Viktor's place to judge, but it just came off to Viktor like that. Still that resulted into Viktor not really being able to enjoy all of the happiness that people were greeting him with. 

All of the interviews were now gladly focused on him wining gold rather than him having soulmate, which he - or more Yakov - was more than glad for. But with all of the glory Viktor had achieved in the last few years, he couldn't help but think about his soulmate and for example start a family with them. He couldn't tell anyone about these thoughts he was having right now, people would tell him he was insane for discarding all the things he had achieved for his soulmate, but that was simply love, probably. 

He was happy that his soulmate couldn't understand his thoughts, their Russian still - hopefully - wasn't good enough for understanding all of these. Still when he thought these things, he could feel his soulmate ease into him and his thoughts weren't that sad then. Makkachin was lying on Viktor's chest again, keeping him company, while he was revising some Japanese vocabulary again. He wasn't able to study a lot of Japanese during the Grand Prix Final, but now he had time again and was happy to still be able to memorise most of them. 

"After the banquet tomorrow we'll go home, you know that, don't you?" Viktor asked her, petting her - mainly to calm himself down. "What if I won't be able to meet my soulmate, I want to meet them… They won't be in this city for longer probably and after that I'll never be as near to them as I was now. In the end I've achieved more than I could ever dream of. I won the Grand Prix Final, but shouldn't there be more than that in the world. I kinda want to start family, I get it now why people marry with twenty… Even though I don't see marriage as something extremely important and necessary." 

Makkachin of course didn't reply to that, but she tried to comfort Viktor in her own way. "But maybe this is just some trick of my mind that like makes me want that. However I don't care… I just want to find them and make the experience for myself. I like my soulmate, I care fore them for some weird reason. I am even learning Japanese for them."

Viktor just continued to pet Makkachin and let her presence calm him down. She was always there for him, he really didn't know what he would do without her. The voice inside his head was still as loud as it was since the week before the Grand Prix Final, but he got used to it and now it made him feel protected, even though his soulmate really wasn't in the best place right now. 

With a look at the clock, he realised that it was probably time to take a shower and then get to the banquet, which almost like an ending of this year's Grand Prix Final in Sochi. Especially since he didn't know, if there was another one planned for him - at least not another one he'd spent on the ice. Of course ice skating would also be one of the most important things in his life, but maybe it was time to put this to an end, find his soulmate, marry them, start like a family. In other words maybe it was time for him to retire after all those years he had spent in competitive sports.

Damn, he was actually getting old with the time, it almost made him chuckle thinking about it. At the start of this season he was sure he'd never ever in his life retire, but now… Now was a different time.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i actually started watching yoi again for this... look at this high-quality research i did... I also changed the storyline a little bit? Because i don't get when the banquet took place in the anime? So yeah, but you should be to understand everything without a problem :)

Yuuri just stared at the wall not really knowing what he was supposed to do now. He felt defeated, or more… exhausted. It was like all energy had suddenly left him, all the excitement he had for the Grand Prix Final had changed into resignation. He didn't know what to do anymore, he lost in the most horrible way possible. Nothing would work out anymore for him. He should really just retire, just simply give up, he had achieved his dreams after all, he'd stood in the Grand Prix Final and got to be in a competition with Viktor (who had by the way actually won his fifth consecutive Grand Prix Final, which was simply amazing). However there was nothing left for Yuuri here in Sochi. 

The news about him performing so poorly at the final were spread all over the internet, for everyone to see. A thing that made Yuuri not only extremely anxious, but also loose faith in what his skills. Maybe he simply wasn't as good as he thought he would be? It made retiring so much more tempting. He could just leave all of this behind him and then in the end perhaps marry his soulmate - or someone else, since Yuuri doubted someone would actually want to be with him. He didn't achieve anything, especially not after that horrible Grand Prix Final. 

Celestino next to him had been trying to cheer up for the last hours (?) and now looked like he was about to snag Yuuri's phone from him as he half-shouted. "Don't look at the news! Let's go somewhere else. There's nothing wrong with losing, you know? We all make mistakes, we're all human. You are only human, so stop overthinking what you could have done different and what you could have done better." His voice was reassuring, cheerful like always. Yuuri's coach really did everything he could do cheer him up. 

"Yuuri Katsuki made the last place - will this season be his last?" Yuuri read out the headline of the article he was currently reading. His voice was trembling as he spoke out those words - these words were true, or at least the question was somehow. Retiring seemed to be so real and especially so a reliving opportunity, maybe it was better to simply give up on competitive ice skating. 

"Yuuri…" he heard Celestino sigh, but his coach didn't do anything, as Yuuri stood up and made his way to the bathrooms. Where he picked up his phone and tried calling his mum - again. Right now everything Yuuri wanted was some emotional support, even though his soulmate had tried to calm him down a little. It worked sometimes, even most of the times, but right now the voice of his soulmate was gone, completely. Maybe there were sleeping or simply not focussing a lot on communicating to Yuuri.

"Hey, mum, can you hear?" Yuuri asked, as he finally somehow managed to get the connection. Then he remembered that it must be really late in Japan considering that it was around 10 pm in Sochi and they had a six hour time difference. "Oh, sorry, did I wake you up?"

Then he was finally able to hear his mother's soft and reassuring voice. "Oh no, it's fine, you didn't wake me up. Your father and I were still awake. What's up, Yuuri? I didn't think you'd call so soon…" There was a pause, when she added. "We were at a public viewing, you know, watching the Grand Prix Final life and so on. Mari is always here somewhere, just like Yuuko and Takeshi, but I can't see them anywhere right now."

"Huh? A public viewing?!" Yuuri half-shouted, blushing furiously. "Mum! This is so embarrassing… I messed up so horrible back there, I'm so sorry." He didn't quite know what to say after that - judging the awkward silence at the other side of the phone, his mum didn't know either. So instead of having to deal with that silence, he ended the call, clasping his phone with his fingers. Steading his head on his hands, Yuuri couldn't help the tears that started fall down. He was more angry at himself than everybody else actually, mainly at his anxiety that caused to perform so poorly at the Grand Prix Final.

Being to focused on calming down and not getting an anxiety attack in a bathroom cabin, he didn't noticed someone stepping into the bathroom and ending right in front of the one bathroom cabin Yuuri was sitting in - crying and half freaking out. And even if he had noticed the steps, he probably wouldn't have done anything about that anyway. Being curled up in a ball, Yuuri was certainly not emotionally prepared for someone to shove their food against the wall of the cabin, making him jump up out of fear. 

Standing up he carefully started to open the door, wondering who the hell was shoving their food against the wall of a bathroom cabin, wasn't that extremely insensitive of whoever did that? Then Yuuri looked up, recognising the figure who was glaring at him with angry eyes. It was no one else than Yuri Plisetsky, the one who had won one the gold medal at the Junior Grand Prix Final and was from Russia. Everybody said that he had the potential for beating the world record that was set by Viktor - the "Russian Punk". Yuuri was intimated by the blonde boy, with the really scary green eyes. He glared at the Japanese boy like he was nothing - or more like he was a piece of trash. Yuuri was scared to death right now, trembling, while pressing his back to the wall of the bathroom cabins. 

"Hey," Yuri just said, still glaring at the black haired boy. "I'm going to be competing in the senior division next year. We definitely don't need two Yuri's in the same bracket, you know that don't you?" Still staring at Yuuri, he added. "Incompetents should just retire already, it's not worth competing anymore, you won't achieve anything anymore." His voice was hard, full of disgust and hatred. Kind of Yuuri felt sad that the blond was so full of hate. Even though Yuri was smaller than him by a couple of centimetres, he was still afraid of him. 

Then Yuri simply left him again, not really caring about what would happen to Yuuri, who had pressed his back against the wall, still trembling. How could a person be filled with so much anger and hate? He shook his head not really understanding it… His mind went back to his performance at the Grand Prix Final, the way he simply wasn't able to concentrate on what the present - maybe he should really just retire. 

After the encounter with Yuri Plisetsky he wasn't really up for doing anything at all, much rather he'd travel home and grieve for his dog Vicchan. He left the bathroom again, only to be stopped by his coach Celestino, who looked at him with a fierce expression. "Before you go home to Japan - yeah I know you need to overthink things - you should really go to the banquet. It's kind of a tradition, you know?"

Yuuri just looked at his coach, but couldn't feel it in his heart to actually say 'no' to that. In the end what was wrong with having a little bit of fun at least one night? He wasn't much of a drinker anyway, so what could possible happen? There was no risk if he went to banquet. With these thoughts he nodded. "Okay… but after that I'll fly back to Japan…?" It came out more like a question than a statement, but he didn't really care about it. 

"Yeah, of course, I already booked your flight, so don't worry about it, you will fly around noon, so you don't have to stand up too soon," Celestino told him with a cheerful smile. "I'll e-mail you everything you need to know about the flight and now we really need to get back to the hotel, the banquet won't be waiting for us." 

So he didn't really had a choice but follow his coach back to the hotel and go to the banquet… Where hopefully nobody would start talking to him… 

 

—

 

Viktor was simply standing around chatting with Yuri. He wasn't really keen on drinking a lot today, so he only had a few drinks before deciding it was clearly enough for today - there were to many people with cameras or phones so it would not be helpful to get wasted… that would result in too many embarrassing photos. However he couldn't help but notice Yuuri Katsuki - the Japanese ice skater - who seemed to be dragged to the banquet by his coach and looked rather uncomfortable. 

Although there was something up with Yuuri that Viktor couldn't quite put his finger, he somehow lost sight of the black haired young man and made a mental note to look out for him some time later. Since there were a lot of people who wanted to talk to him, take pictures and congratulate him on his latest success, Viktor kind of forgot that he wanted to change a few words with Yuuri. The evening went by with that and soon it was around eleven pm, people were at least a little bit drunk by then - which wasn't really a surprise.

That was until someone was weaving among the crowd, already started to strip off some of their clothes. It didn't get unnoticed by Viktor, who wasn't really talking to anyone by that time. Still he was shocked, when he recognised the figure as Yuuri, who seemed to be wasted. He wasn't shy or uncomfortable right now, no… he was started to unbutton his shirt, the tie was already lying somewhere on the ground. Next to Viktor people were casting, other's had already took out their phones filming and taking pictures. This was making him cringe… and also it was kind of hot?

With his shirt showing already half of his chest Yuuri started doing some sort of break dance - wherever he had learnt that, it must have been a really good dance studio. It was okay and completely fine until Yuri, who may had one or two drinks too much, joined in and they continued with a dance battle. Considering this was probably the most fun thing that would happen tonight, it wasn't a surprise that people had started filming it. Yakov, who was now standing next to Viktor, was just looking away, sighing. 

Viktor instead decided to get another drink, otherwise that whole dance battle probably wouldn't be as funny. It was pretty amazing how they both had really good dance skills, also behind the background that they were both completely drunk and probably wouldn't remember a lot of that night. Since everybody was taking pictures, Viktor decided to join in - who would believe if he told someone that two ice skaters had a dance battle at a banquet… yeah right, nobody, it was pretty unbelievable after all. 

Yuri had left after the dance battle - not voluntarily - Yakov had told Viktor he was going to bring the blond home, youth protection and stuff. He had simply nodded, not really progressing what his coach had told him. He wasn't completely drunk yet, but drunk enough to think about dancing with Yuuri. The black haired had been stealing glances at Viktor for the last few minutes, which gave him the confidence to simply join in as Yuuri started some dance moves. It was nice, it felt nice for Viktor. There wasn't a voice in his head asking what would happen to his soulmate. 

Due to Vitkor's not-actually-the-best-stamina he wasn't really in the place to continue the dancing after all - even if that was clearly what he would want the most. People had still taken photos and photos even videos… Now Viktor realised that he would be on them, too, but he couldn't find himself to care. As he thought about, he didn't know why he'd never recognised Yuuri before… the young man was obviously extremely handsome and hot… Even though he seemed to be really shy and anxious during the competitions. 

After that it wasn't over however, since somewhere someone had gotten a pole for dancing, which was not only by Yuuri - he wasn't wearing pants anymore - but also Christophe - only in his underwear. These were certainly things Viktor never ever wanted to see in his life, like ever again. It was really really weird, so he drank another glass of champagne to make all of this a least a little bit bearable… and this one glass didn't seemed to do its work, another one followed and another one and another one… Then he lost count of how much he actually drank. 

A few minutes later Yuuri's shirt was gone too and the two of them were wearing their ties again, now dancing together at the pole. For some reason it made Viktor feel sick, he wanted to vomit by the simply sight of them doing something so intimate together. However there was no simply explanation for this. It wasn't like he had crush on one of them… Especially not Chris, that would be really weird… and also gross. Chris and Yuuri… that wasn't how it was supposed to be… Dancing with Yuuri felt right, but this right now, this felt incredible wrong. 

Disgusted by this Viktor turned around not wanting to be focussing his attention on that anymore, instead he looked around, wishing for someone to simply stop the two of them pole dancing. Gladly they were, their coaches jumped in, persuading them to put on their clothes again and stop dancing - Chris didn't however, but Yuuri did - sadly. Viktor was however more than relived as the two separated.

That relief didn't last long however, since Yuuri had now recognised Viktor and was smiling at him brightly - still not wearing any pants, he wrapped his arms around the body of the silver haired man, pressing the two of them together. 

"After this season ends…" Yuuri slurred, meanwhile swinging his hips seducing. "My family runs a hot spring resort, you should come by. I've won these dance-offs… So you can be my coach, can't you?" Then he wrapped his arms around Viktor's neck. "Be my coach, Viktor."

Viktor's mind was too slow to process all the things happening right now, but he knew he should feel anxious and this whole situation was probably really really weird - he didn't however. It felt right to be this close to the young man he hadn't even known for longer than a night - a couple of hours maybe. 

Then it hit him. Yuuri was a Japanese ice skater, younger than him and in Sochi since a week, he was anxious during competitions… This young man in front of him… was his soulmate!

 

—

 

Yuuri woke up the next day with a horrible headache. He hadn't any memories of last night - only that they had been at the banquet. It wasn't unusual for him to go blank after having a few drinks, so he didn't really think about it a lot. What made him wonder more was the fact that his mind was so… quiet. There was so no voice inside his head anymore, nothing to comfort him anymore. He looked instantly at his wrist and then recognised a small snowflake that had appeared on the side of his left wrist. It comforted him in a strange way, knowing that he had met his soulmate sometime probably yesterday, but now he couldn't remember it anymore. 

Taking a pill against a headache, he stood up, looking at the clock on his phone - it was barely ten am, so he still had some time to get to the airport and pack his things. Sighing Yuuri started packing his things, now there was something left for him here in Sochi. He had met his soulmate and now could only hope for them to contact him somehow, since there'd be no other way for them to get together otherwise. 

On time Yuuri and Celestino had made it to the airport, where they would go separate ways for a little while, until he had decided what to do in the next season. It was crowded there like at nearly every other airport, but he was fine, until he heard someone scream his name. "Katsuki." It made him turn around and he recognised the owner of the voice as Morooka, a newscaster. "Don't give up! It's too early for you to retire!"

"I haven't made my decision yet," Yuuri replied coldly. "So don't make any assumptions on wether I retire or not."

It went on with another question, regarding his future, this time about what his plans were after his high school graduation and if he would still train in Detroit. Yuuri didn't quite know what to say, so he just casted down his eyes, stuttering something. "Uh… I'll be talking about that with my coach." The questions still continue, so he decides for simply not answering, instead his attention is caught by someone calling his name. As he looks around, he realises that it was only Viktor who was talking to Yuri Plisetsky and not him - obviously. The two of them were discussing about Yuri's free program and what he could have done better, if Yuuri was able to follow the conversation correctly.

Yuuri didn't realised that he had been staring at Viktor's back pretty obvious. He nearly had a heart attack, as the silver haired man actually turned around, looking at Yuuri with a big smile. "A commemorative photo?" he asked the black haired man with a smile. There was a minute where Yuuri didn't know what to do, but then he simply turned around, proceeding to go the check-in. 

He'd been an idiot for thinking he could finally meet his idol on eye-level. He simply wasn't good enough for that. Yuuri should have known that he was not good enough and he actually felt relived, when he thought about being able to go home again after all the stress he'd faced the last year. Only he returned home with a mark on his wrist that meant he was now 'taken' by his soulmate.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry, i had this horrible writing block ugh :/  
> btw my tumblr is mychemicalrainbows, so if you have some questions or just want to take a look, then check it out :))  
> also this story is also posted on wattpad (also mychemicalrainbows ^^)

_One year later…_

Yuuri was on his way home, as he was driving downstairs with the escalator, he hadn't visited his hometown for quite some time and was now more than happy to be back. That was until he realised the many posters hanging around at the train station, posters of him ice skating - this was more than embarrassing. Before he could completely freak out - especially considering he shouldn't be called the best Japanese ice skater anymore - he heard a voice behind him calling his name. He jumped at that, turning his head around and recognising Minako, his former/current ballet teacher, who apparently wanted to pick him from the train station.

"Welcome back, Yuuri!" she screamed, cheerfully, even dancing around with a poster where his name was written on in a pink colour. He just gasped at her, while her screaming had apparently attracted other's to look at the two of them - and then obviously they recognised him as Yuuri the Japanese ice skater, the one who made it to the Grand Prix Final and then made a complete fool out of himself. He was still really embarrassed about it.

All the people around him started whispering - whispering loud enough for him to understand everything perfectly. They were talking about how he had lost a big competition last year… And now of course he also lost at the Nationals - again. He already felt anxious only by all these people looking - staring - at him, probably judging him for such a failure. Once again he wished for the comforting voice of his soulmate, for them to simply be there, but that was a hopeless wish. So instead his hand instinctively ran over the soulmate mark, like he wanted to make sure that it was still there - not that a soulmate mark ever disappeared but still. 

He went through the counter, trying to block all the thoughts of the posters of him hanging in the walls of the train station in Hasetsu. Just as he was actually doing fine, someone, who had to have recognised him, asked him to shake his hand. Yuuri, being the anxious and socially awkward person he was, simply wanted to go hime, explaining it by saying he was in a hurry. But Minako shouted at him for being 'unpolite' and then started to use Viktor as an example for 'being nice to his fans'. He jerked at the mention of Viktor, remembering that he didn't even have the courage to talk to him after all. At least he had been able to be in the same competition like his idol - that should be enough. 

Minako continued to try dragging him through the town, to 'meet everybody again'. When Yuuri was around sixteen he had already recognised that people were starting to move to bigger cities, especially younger people. Hasetsu was simply not the best place to study - or had the best work chances. And then he had left by himself… He stopped walking, causing his former ballet teacher to stop, too. "I'm sorry, Minako, I'm really tired, can't we just go home and you know, maybe stop all of this," he asked, looking at her questioningly.

He certainly wasn't fond of constantly being confronted with all of these things of his past. Especially since Minako wanted for him to meet his 'fans' and he couldn't help, but feel like he partly failed all the people who had believed in him no matter what. Also he had just returned from Detroit and was still kind of jet-lagged. Also meeting his family would probably be difficult enough for him after all what happened. Arriving at home, Yuuri was relived, he didn't think that he had missed this place so much.

Minako was far too hyperactive for her own good, shouting enthusiastically, as they entered the hot springs resort, where his mother was currently working in. "Hey, I brought Yuuri home, he's still jet-lagged, but I'm sure he'll be fine." 

Yuuri just smiled, not really knowing what to say to his mum after not seeing her in such a long time. "Um hey, sorry I haven't been home in such a long time," he said, awkwardly standing there and didn't really know what to do. Still his mother seemed to be happy about him being home and wasn't angry or anything. Also all the other guest that were currently here started to look - or rather stare - at him, which made him kind of anxious, also he didn't know what to do right now. Instinctively he touched his soulmate mark, like it was supposed to give some sort of comforting feeling. 

"It's fine, I'm just so happy, you finally managed to come home," Hiroko told him with a smile. Yuuri was grateful for finally meeting his mum again, he had missed in the time he was gone - more than he probably wanted to admit. "You want to have a pork cutlet bowl? I'm sure you didn't get to enjoy one in all this year." 

Before Yuuri could say something, Minako took this as a signal for her to ask a question she seemed to be really curious about. "Now that you say I was wondering… Why are you wearing such a thick coat?" As Yuuri didn't reply to her question, she started examining his body - certainly not a nice feeling. "Take off that coat!"

He didn't do anything at all, still in some sort of shock, so Minako took it in her own hands, starting to take off his coat, revealing his stomach - and that he had gained weight, a lot of weight, especially compared to what he looked like before. It wasn't that he did it on purpose, but after losing all those competitions there simply hadn't been a good reason for him to keep a diet. So he just ate a lot, maybe also something out of frustration but still. 

What certainly didn't help the situation, was his dad now coming in, laughing at first and then stating. "You look just like your mum."

"You shouldn't laugh about it! This is not how the body of a figure skater should look like!" Minako half-shouted, sounding angry. It wasn't a thing that someone would like to hear, but Yuuri knew that she was right, however he couldn't find himself to care about this matter a lot. He had disappointed the people who had believed him, although he didn't think he would have to face it so soon after returning home. 

Still his father seemed to be rather calm and not that out-raged about, as he commented. "You did always gain weight easily, you know. It's not a surprise… But you can't do anything about it right now, so don't worry about it too much. So just eat as many pork cutlet bowls as you like."

"Um yeah," Yuuri just said, not knowing what to do. He still couldn't really believe that he was home after all those time and all the things that happened. With all the stress that he had in the last few weeks, he didn't really think about Vicchan. "Before…" he started, but didn't quite know how to finish his sentence.

"Yeah, go and say hi to Vicchan," his mum ended the sentence for him, smiling at him. It reassured him that somehow his family surely still believed in him and were happy that he was home. They didn't seem to care about the fact he failed all those competitions…

 

—

 

Viktor didn't know what he was supposed to feel, or how he was supposed to feel. After all his career was still going brilliantly and then that he would be able to strive for a career as a coach, even international, there wouldn't be a limit probably. But he didn't feel happy, he didn't like his life like it was right now. And yes he really missed the voice of his soulmate in his head or simply the feeling of them being there with him. Now everything was so… so quiet. It was a horrible quiet, especially since his soulmate - Yuuri - had somehow no way to be contacted. Or he didn't answer, or maybe he didn't want to answer. Whatever it was Viktor was helpless. 

Even after winning the european championship there wasn't any happiness. There was just this indescribable desire for him to finally be able to talk to his soulmate again. At least he had taken his time to learn Japanese and was now a little bit better at understanding it. It didn't help though, he was torn between just flying to Japan and being able to meet Yuuri or at least talk to him in a sober state? They were soulmates after all and soulmates got married. However in this state Viktor didn't want to marry someone he didn't know. It was like that a few hundred years before, but now people first got to know their soulmate properly and then married them - or didn't marry them. That was rare but possible. 

It wasn't that Viktor had planned that, he didn't see a reason in marrying someone else, when he knew that his soulmate was somewhere out there. However today it wouldn't be a problem anymore. People have become more liberal when it came to non-soulmate weddings, even though they weren't legalised until a few years ago - which literally made no sense at all, but the politics weren't always logical. 

Yuuri was gone, he wasn't active on social media, there was nothing. It drove Viktor mad to not know if his soulmate was okay. At least he knew that Yuuri was still alive, because otherwise the soulmate mark would have started to fade slightly. Viktor simply wanted to be able to meet his soulmate again. However he was repulsed about it, since a drunk invitation wasn't really what Viktor would count as a good start? He should probably rather wait a little - even if it was hard, but that was the best thing he could do in this situation. Only waiting a little time, maybe Yuuri would finally come back in some way and Viktor could contact him again. 

Makkachin was spread over his chest and didn't really seem to care about the crisis Viktor was currently in. She probably cared more about him being there than anything else. "I just don't want to be alone here anymore… I understand, why people simply want to spend time with their soulmate, I get it now. It's the way I feel. I simply want to be with him, but… I can't right now and it breaks my heart… But with the championships and all of that going on… I won't be able to do anything else."

 

—

 

Yuuri was happy to be home, for things to feel a little bit more familiar again. He hadn't realised how he had missed that feeling of being around his family members. Especially after everything what had happened these past few weeks he was relived. They were still there, supporting him with every step he would take. His sister would even endorse him to continue ice skating if that was his wish. There was so much love in his family that he had felt a little bit overwhelmed at first but then he just accepted it. 

Minako was still there and now watching the ice skating championships live. Of course Viktor was also competing and Yuuri couldn't help but feel incredible sad. Like this was not right and something was wrong about it - he explained it that he was just a little bit jealous, since he couldn't be there. That was all. However even Viktor himself seemed to be a little bit off, like he wasn't as passionate, but maybe it was simply wishfulness that made him wonder about this. 

Yuuri just stood there his eyes seemed to be glues to the television, not caring about wether Minako was currently fighting with another guest, who wanted to watch soccer rather than ice skating. Maybe he didn't actually miss competing, but more missed ice skating. Not really in the mood to spend his evening watching ice skaters who didn't make an absolute fool out of them, he decided to rather go to the ice rink and just practise a bit. Maybe that would clear his head, help him to think a little bit clearer and also calm him down. In the end he loved ice skating with all his heart and probably wouldn't be able to live without it. 

At the ice rink - it was already late evening - he met Yuuko an old childhood friend of his. Not really knowing what he was supposed to say, he just stood there awkwardly, waiting for Yuuko to say something, so there wasn't this silence anymore.

She seemed to understand him and just waved, smiling at him cheerfully. "Oh, I'm sure you came here to skate?" she asked him excitedly. "Then go ahead, it won't be a problem even if the ice rink is technically closed."

The two of them were childhood friends and also really close. They would often practise together or simply skate. Yuuko was really good at skating, maybe better than him, but once she met her soulmate Takeshi - a mutual friend of the two of them - she decided to rather stay in Hasestu, whereas Yuuri aimed for an international career. Their paths parted, but Yuuri would never forget that she was the one who convinced him to start ice skating in the first place - he also had a lot of respect for her talent in general. She also always protected him and stood up for him, especially since Takeshi used to be kind of mean. Yuuko and him had also often fangirled about Viktor - wich was probably really embarrassing now that he thought about it.

Their fingerling went this far that they not only tried to imitate his programs and learnt all of his choreographies, Yuuri also wished for a poodle, as he found out that Viktor had one - he even named Vicchan after his idol. Thinking back it was really really embarrassing and he probably shouldn't think about it anymore. Still there weren't any other better friends Yuuri could have wished for. Yuuri had always wished to be able to meet Viktor on a similar level, a dream he wanted to achieve - and in some way he did. He made his dream come true. 

After he had put on his shoes, he gestured Yuuko to follow him to the ice rink. He wanted to show her something he had been working since the competitions ended. In her eyes there was some kind of surprise, but she just took his glasses and didn't ask any questions. Yuuri had practised Viktor's free program for a long time now. The reasons why he had felt the need to do this weren't even plausible for himself. Maybe he wanted to prove something to him - whatever it was, he was grateful for it. 

From the moment Yuuri had started, he knew that Yuuko had realised what he was skating that he was dancing Viktor's short program. Part of him knew that he would never be as good as Viktor, but he couldn't but enjoy it still. It was sometimes even more enjoyable than skating his own programs - there was less pressure to make it perfect, it was just for fun.

As he was done - he certainly overestimated his stamina - Yuuko stared at him, her eyes seemed to be filled with tears. "That was amazing! You perfectly copied Viktor! I thought you were kind of depressed after everything that happened… and then you didn't really talk to anyone at all, I was worried. However there isn't really a reason to be worried."

Yuuri smiled, looking down a bit to hide his blush. "Yeah, I don't know… I just wanted to get my love for skating back. That's where everything started after all, you know?"

The two of them were soon joined by Takeshi and their three children. It was nice to see the young family so happy. The two of them were one of the best soulmate couples Yuuri had ever seen in his life and he kind of wished for his future relationship to be like that too. Especially the three children were kind of his 'fans', which alway warmed his heart. This was happiness and maybe he could have something of that, too soon.

"By the way, what's up with your soulmate?" Yuuko asked, trying to sound casually, but she couldn't hide her curiosity about the topic. Yuuri had been wearing gloves for the whole time he was on the ice, but now they were sitting on a bench, he had taking these off - and then of course his soulmate mark. 

"Well I met them sometime in Russia? But I literally have no idea where?" Yuuri replied and as he looked in two extremely confused faces, he started explaining. "Well I started learning Russian after I figured out they were in Russia and it worked kind of. And you know how the voices get louder the closer you get to your soulmate? Well they were probably in Sochi, too and at the banquet of the last day I just woke up the next day, without any memories and a soulmate mark."

"Did you drink alcohol again?" Takeshi asked, his voice being a mix of amusement and annoyance. "Because you know that alcohol doesn't have a good influence on your memory…"

"Yeah maybe, I don't know," Yuuri replied not really knowing what he should say to that. Of course he knew that alcohol definitely wasn't good for him, especially since his alcohol tolerance was extremely low. However he had felt so lonely at the banquet that there wasn't really another option for him. 

"So to sum up, you basically got drunk at a banquet, then met your soulmate somewhere along this night. The next day you kind of forgot everything that happened that night?" Yuuko asked, looking at him to confirm her statement.

"Uh, yeah basically…" Yuuri answered, casting his eyes down.


End file.
